Rules Committee Topic for the 12th Session of Parliament (September 2017-October 2017)

WHEREAS: the activities of this Parliament should not be interrupted by the absence of its chair;

WHEREAS: currently there is no provision for the continuance of the activities of this Parliament during the absence of its chair, the Prime Minister;

WHEREAS: this Bill allows the activities of this Parliament to proceed as normal during an absence, whether planned or unplanned, of the Prime Minister, be it therefore

ORDERED: that the following clause shall be inserted into the Constitution of this Union as part of Article 3, Section D, Subsection 3:

"Clause a: in the event that the Prime Minister is absent for more than two days, the Senator with the most votes at the last regional election is charged with calling a vote in Parliament to choose a Deputy Prime Minister from among the incumbent Senators of this Union."

An Act to make an end to a specific, limited, number of Bills that can be reviewed or debated at the same time.

WHEREAS Our Constitution has regulated that Parliament can only review one Bill at any time;

WHEREAS We believe that Parliament has the ability to regulate their orders and procedures themselves;

WHEREAS We think that the quality of the debate on Bills is not influenced by the quantity of Bills being debated;

BELIEVING that by restricting Parliament to debate only a specific, limited, number of Bills at any time, the Executive Branch of government might influence the proceedings of the Legislative Branch;

FURTHER BELIEVING that by restricting Parliament to debate only a specific, limited, limited number of Bills at any time, the legislative process of Our Region slows down unnecessary;

GIVEN that at the moment of writing this Bill, the limited number of Bills that can be debated at any specific time is one (1) Bill;

BE IT ENACTED by the Minister of Development, by and with the advice and consent of Parliament and the Cabinet, in this present assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Article 1
Section I of Article II from Our Constitution shall hereby be repealed.

Article 2
There will be added a new Section to Article II from Our Constitution that shall read as follows:-

"Parliament shall have the right to debate Bills at any time from the moment they are brought to the Debate Hall. There shall be no restrictions on the total number of Bills debated at any same time."

Article I: Introduction
Noting the many increased authority of the Minister and Ministry of Jurisprudence over matters relating the security and wellbeing of the Union and Constitution, and wishing to prevent the undue abuse of that authority, we, the Parliament of the Union, move to guard the Ministry of Jurisprudence from such exposure to malfeasance.

Article II: Amendments
The following text shall be appended as a point to Article III, Section E, Subsection 3, Clause b of the Constitution:
“Point i: The Founder shall have the authority to dismiss the Minister of Jurisprudence if the holder of that position has shown a considerable lack of understanding or application in the exercise of his functions.”

Article III: Conclusion
We, the Parliament and People of the Union, enact the provisions of this Act into law as an Amendment to the Constitution of the Union, and order that the appropriate changes to official documents referenced in this Act be carried out in a timely fashion.

ACKNOWLEDGING that the Founder of Our Region, is no more than an ordinary member with administrative privileges and duties;

NOTING that the Constitution leaves some area for the Founder to interfere with the Regions politics directly;

BELIEVING that the Founder should always be an strictly regulated office, especially because of its privileges and important duties;

BE IT ENACTED by Nassau-Windsor, Founder of Our Region, by and with the consent and advise of Parliament and the Cabinet, in this present assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Article 1
In an effort to regulate the position of the Founder of Our Region properly, We do hereby enact the provisions of this document as a Constitutional Amendment.

Article 2
We move to create and to add a new Article to the Constitution, to be named "Article V: The Administrative Branch".

Article 3
We move to add to the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 1":
"There shall be an Administrative Branch of government, in which are seated the Founder, the Regional Administrative Officers and other Administrative Members."

Article 4
We move to amend Article III, Section A of the Constitution to contain the new text:
"The Executive Brach of the Parliamentary Union of Sovereign States shall consist of the President, Prime Minister and Cabinet."

Article 5
We move to add the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 2":
"Subsection 1 The Founder must be elected by the Members, when his predecessor ceases to exist.
Subsection 2 The Founder must have an active account in the Region.
Subsection 3 There shall be no limitations to the duration of the Founder’s term, other than ceasing to exist."

Article 6
We move to add the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 3":
"Subsection 1 The Founder shall be the ultimate authority regarding administrative and civilian matters concerning the Region. The Founder's authority would not effect specific matters regulated by Act of Parliament (or an Amendment passed by Parliament), approved by the Founder as such, as those are to be considered in-character.
Subsection 2 As affirmed to Article 1, Section D of Our Constitution, the Founder may not take part in government affairs, unless he holds another office that entitles him to do so or as that would be unreasonable in the way that the Founder would then have fewer options to take part in these matters than any other member who does not hold any office.
Subsection 3 The Founder may appoint and dismiss Regional Administrative Officers.
Subsection 4 The Founder may appoint and dismiss Administrative Members.
Subsection 5 The Founder is entitled to use all administrative powers, privileges and functions, able to be used from NationStates in the Region, as well as all those on the Forum.
Subsection 6 In relation to the Subsections 3 and 4 of this Section, Parliament shall determine by a simple majority vote the specific number of Regional Administrative Officers and Administrative Members which can be appointed by the Founder."

Article 7
We move to add the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 4":
"It is the Founder’s duty to ensure that the World Factbook Entry, Regional Message Board and the Forum runs properly.  Accordingly, he is entitled to update and regulate them. He must do everything in his capabilities to do so correctly and promptly."

Article 8
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 5":
"Subsection 1 The Founder may eject and ban nations that come into Our Region, whether on NationStates or the Forum, when they are repeatedly spamming, trolling or violating the rules of NationStates or the Forum, but not unless he has given the specific nation a public warning. No nation may be ejected or banned because of in-character matters.
Subsection 2 If Regional Administrative Officers or Administrative Members would use these powers against a member, they have the privilege to demand an appeal to the Founder. The Founder will then decide on the case and his decision will be final."

Article 9
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 6":
"The Founder must accept and abide by all in-character decisions of Parliament and the Executive Branch as long as they do not effect out-of-characters matters or are to be considered reasonable."

Article 10
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 7":
"Subsection 1 The Founder will regulate votes via regional polls. The subject of these votes may not be either a Bill or an Amendment that has been laid before Parliament.
Subsection 2 The Founder will make sure that votes, as well as their outcomes, are publicised and abided by.
Subsection 3 The Founder may never vote in any of the polls concerning his own position as Founder."

Article 11
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 8":
"Subsection 1 The Founder is tasked with the security of the Region. He may therefore lock the Region by setting a password for a temporary amount of time. The Founder may not devolve the power to lock the Region to any of his Regional Administrative Officers or Administrative Members.
Subsection 2 Contrary to subsection 1 of this Section, the power to lock the Region by setting a password will be devolved to the [most senior] Regional Administrative Officer, that is active himself, by virtue if the Founder is inactive for at least 10 days."

Article 12
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 9":
"The Administrative branch of government will execute punishments rightfully issued by the Administrative Branch or the Judicial Branch of government for both in-character and out-of-character violations to the Rules, Regulations and Law of the Region and the hosts, respectively NationStates and Forumotion."

Article 13
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 10":
"In order to keep discussions and debates civilised, the Administrative Branch may suppress messages on the Regional Message  Board and the Forum. The suppression must be accompanied by a warning."

Article 14
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 11":
"Subsection 1The Founder may not use his role as such to abuse powers or privileges by making decisions. If any member argues that the Founder does, he is permitted to ask for a Commission to review his case. The Commission consists of the President, unless that is the Founder, in which case it shall be the Prime Minister, as speaker, and two Senators, not being the Founder. Further regulations regarding such a review are to be created and published by the Founder.
Subsection 2 The Commission may only determine whether or not a Founder’s decision is being an abuse of power or privilege as stated in Article V, Section 11. If they find that the decision is not based upon abuse of power, the decision will stand. If they do find it based upon abuse of power, the Judicial System will decide whether or not the decision will stand or will be changed."

Article 15
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 12":
"The powers, privileges and duties as mentioned of the Founder may be devolved to Regional Administrative Officers unless otherwise stated. The Founder is free to choose how he devolves his powers, privileges and duties. Article V, Section 11 and Article V, Section 11 shall be of similar effect to Regional Administrative Officers. The Founder is entitled to overrule the decisions taken by a Regional Administrative Officer at all times."

Article 16
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 13":
"The powers, privileges and duties as mentioned of the Founder may be devolved to Administrative Members unless otherwise stated. The Founder is free to choose how he devolves his powers, privileges and duties. Article V, Section 11 and Article V, Section 11 shall be of similar effect to Administrative Members. The Founder and Regional Administrative Officers are entitled to overrule decisions taken by an Administrative Member at all times, unless such would contradict to an earlier decision of the Founder which has not been repealed by the Founder."

Article 17
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 14":
"The Founder and the Administrative Branch may use all future and unmentioned privileges and powers to perform their duties for the better of the out-of-character side of the Region, as long as this does not lead to abuse of these privileges or powers."

Article 18
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 15":
"When the Founder ceases-to-exist, his duties, privileges and rights are to be trusted to the Prime Minister, until another Founder has been elected by regional vote regulated by that Prime Minister or his successor."

Article 19
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 16":
"If at any time the Founder loses his nation in Our Region, other than because of technical issues caused by NationStates, he shall be considered to be ceased-to-exist by default."

Article 20
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 17":
"Because of his administrative role, the Judicial System may not punish the Founder in such a way that he is required to remove his nation from the Region. They may however determine that the Founder shall lose all in-character privileges and offices for an further to be determined amount of time."

Article 21
We move to add the following to the Constitution as " Article V, Section 18":
"If at any time a ceased-to-existed Founder returns to the Region, he shall not have a claim on the office of Founder by default."

Article 22
We move to add the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 19":
"The Founder, from now until he ceases-to-exist, shall be the ultimate authority of the Region."

Article 23
We move to add the following to the Constitution as "Article V, Section 20":
"The Founder will regulate and control all elections via Regional polls."

Article 24
We move to revoke Article III, Section B, along with its Subsections, from the Constitution.

The Founder should have no right to decide what Acts of Parliament they have to follow.  It is the sole role of the President to give assent.
Amendment I: In Article 6, in the proposed V.3.1, the phrase "approved by the Founder as such" shall be stricken.

Parliament should be the most supreme regulatory body regarding the administrative functions.  Just as Parliament can override a Cabinet regulation, it must be able to exercise basic powers over the Administrative Branch.
Amendment II: In Article 6, in the proposed V.3.5, the phrase "subject to the regulation of the Parliament" shall be appended.
Amendment III: In Article 7, in the proposed V.4, the phrase "subject to the supercession of Parliament" shall be inserted after the phrase "he is entitled to update and regulate them."
Amendment IV: In Article 9, in the proposed V.6, all text after the phrase "Executive Branch" shall be stricken.

Article 8 of this Act, as written, would effectively deny all judicial rights to an accused.  However, it must be recognized that summary action is necessary to immediately stop a spammer.  So this next set of Amendments will make a compromise that will satisfy both needs.
Amendment V: In Article 8, in the proposed V.5.2, the phrase "within the Administrative Branch" shall be appended.
Amendment VI: In Article 8, the following shall be added to the proposed V.5:
"Subsection 3: Nations may appeal any ejection or ban made under this Section to the relevant judicial authorities.  This shall be done by filing a Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Speaker of Parliament.  The Speaker of Parliament will then issue public notice that the Ministry of Jurisprudence shall have fourteen (14) days to file charges or the ban will be automatically lifted."

In order to retain full democracy, the People must be able to vote on Constitutional Amendments directly.
Amendment VII: In Article 10, in the proposed V.7.1, the following phrase "except Constitutional Amendments" shall be appended.

I strongly believe that no officeholder should be their own oversight.
Amendment VIII: In Article 14, in the proposed V.11.1, the phrase "created and published by the Founder" shall be replaced by the phrase "created and published by the Parliament".

I also believe that Parliament and the Courts should be the bodies determining punishments, not the Founder.  So this Amendment should only exclude punishments that would not be logistically possible.
Amendment XI: In Article 20, the proposed V.17 shall be replaced by the following text:
"Because of his administrative role, the Judicial System may not punish the Founder in such a way that he is required to remove his nation from the Region, nor may they issue any punishment that would prevent the Founder from exercising his out-of-character powers under this Article."

SEVERAL AMENDMENTS TO OUR CONSTITUTION to further regulate the position of the Founder, the Regional Officials appointed to perform, on the Founder's behalf, administrative as well as technical functions, as well as for other constitutional reasons.

ACKNOWLEDGING that We tried to implement similar amendments with Senate Order 2016-12 ("The Region's Administrative Branch 2016 Constitutional Amendment"), yet that it was not passed into law;

HOWEVER OBSERVING that the Amendments were met with welcome words, and that the only reason it did not pass Parliament, was a lack of quorum among the voting Members, not because of discontent among said Members;

THEREFORE BELIEVING that a second attempt should be made to pass these several Amendments, alongside other such Amendments, which have now been added to this Constitutional Amendment;

NOTING that the reasons mentioned in the preamble of the said Senate Order 2016-12 are equally relevant to this Constitutional Amendment;

BE IT ENACTED by Us, Nassau-Windsor, Founder of Our Region, by and with the advice and consent of Parliament and Cabinet, in this present assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Chapter One: General provisions
Article 1
This Act shall be classified as a Constitutional Amendment.

Article 2
This Act may be cited as "[The] 2017 Constitutional Amendment Act on the Administrative Branch".

Chapter Two: Amendments to Article I of the Constitution
Article 3
We move to replace the word "with" stated in Article I, Section A, of Our Constitution by the word "within".

Chapter Three: Amendments with regards to the Administrative Branch
Article 4
We move to create and to add a new Article to the Constitution, to be named "Article V: The Administrative Branch".

Article 5
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 1" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "There shall be an Administrative Branch of governance, which consists of the Founder, the Regional Administrative Officers, and other Administrative Officials."

Article 6
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 2" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "Subsection 1 A Founder is to be elected among from and by the Members of Our Region whenever the previous incumbent ceases-to-exist or freely chooses to resign from that Office. The Office of Founder may not be performed by any other Member than the rightfully elected Member. Subsection 2 The Founder must have an active account in the Region at all times. Subsection 3 There shall be no limitations to the duration of the Founder's term."

Article 7
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 3" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "Subsection 1 The Founder shall be the ultimate authority regarding administrative and technical matters concerning the Region. The Founder shall, however, not have any rights, powers, prvileges, duties, or responsibilities with regards to the in-game character of Our Region withouth holding another position or office. Subsection 2 The Founder may not take part in affairs of governance, unless he holds another position or office than entitles him to do so or unless that would be unreasonable in the way that the Founder would then have fewer options to take part in these matters than any other ordinary member. Subsection 3 The Founder may appoint and dismiss Regional Administrative Officers and Administrative Officials as he pleases. Subsection 4 It shall be proper for the Founder to use and enjoy all powers, privileges, and functions with either an administrative or a technical ground or application. Subsection 5 The Regional Administrative Officers as well as the Administrative Officials shall assist the Founder on his behalf with his duties and responsibilities. The Founder may devolve several specific privileges to do so, yet the said Officers and Officials must abide by the regulations given to them by the Founder. The Founder may overrule his said Officers and Officials."

Article 8
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Secion 4" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "It is the Founder's duty to ensure that the pages connected to Our Region on NationStates, as well as to the Forum, and the DISCORD-channel, run properly to the best of his abilities. Accordingly, he is entitled to update and regulate them."

Article 9
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 5" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The Fonder may eject and/or ban all those who reside in Our Region on NationStates and all accounts created on Our Forum and DISCORD-channel, when they are violating the general rules of such media in order to perform and function properly. By no means may this power be exercised for in-character reasons whatsoever."

Article 10
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 6" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The Founder has to comply with and abide by all in-character laws that have the force of rule and are in effect, so long as they do not effect out-of-character matters or change the technical or administrative way the Region is regulated and functions."

Article 11
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 7" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "Subsection 1 The Regional security shall be a reponsibility dually held by the Founder and the Minister of War. The Founder may lock the Region by setting a password in order to guarantee the security of the Region. The Founder may only do this occasionally and temporarily, when he has severe and good reasons to fear for the security of the Region. This power may, under no circumstances whatsoever, be devolved to others. Subsection 2 Contrary to Subsection 1, the power to lock the Region will automatically be devolved to the most senior active Regional Administrative Officer, or when there is no such Officer, to the most senior active Administrative Official, if the Founder is inactive for at least 15 days on all media of the Region."

Article 12
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 8" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The Administrative Branch may suppress, and if possible remove, messages on the media used by the Region when they are disorderly and in violation of the general rules of a civilised debate or discussion. In-character messages may not be removed or suppressed."

Article 13
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 9" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The Founder may not use his role as such to abuse powers or privileges."

Article 14
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 10" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The powers, privileges and duties as mentioned of the Founder may be devolved to Regional Administrative Officers and Administrative Officials unless otherwise stated. The Founder is free to choose how he devolves his powers, privileges and duties."

Article 15
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 11" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "The Founder and the Administrative Branch may use all future and unmentioned privileges and powers to perform their duties for the better of the out-of-character side of the Region, as long as this does not lead to abuse of these privileges or powers."

Article 16
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 12" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "When the Founder ceases-to-exist, his duties, privileges and rights are to be trusted to the President, until another Founder has been elected by regional vote regulated by that Prime Minister or his successor."

Article 17
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 13" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "If at any time the Founder loses his nation in Our Region, other than because of technical issues caused by NationStates, he shall be considered to be ceased-to-exist by default."

Article 18
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 14" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "Because of his administrative and technical role, the Judicial System may not punish the Founder in such a way that he is required to remove his nation from the Region."

Article 19
We move to add the following provision to the Constitution as "Section 15" of the said newly created Article V, which shall have the following text: "If at any time a ceased-to-existed Founder returns to the Region, he shall not have a claim on the office of Founder by default."

Article 20
We move to revoke Article III, Section B, along with all of its subsections, from the Constitution.

Chapter Four: Other Constitutional Amendments
Article 21
We move to amend Article III, Section A of the Constitution so that it will read as follows: "The Executive Branch of the Parliamentary Union of Sovereign States shall consist of the President, Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers."

Article I: Introduction
In order to prevent regional inactivity and difficulties when the President is inactive, we do create the position of Vice President within the Executive.

Article II: Amendments
1) Article III, Section A of the Constitution shall be amended to read as follows: "The Executive Branch of the Parliamentary Union of Sovereign States shall consist of the Founder, President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Cabinet".

2) The sections within Article III after Section C shall be incremented one letter.

3) The following shall be inserted as Article III, Section D of the Constitution:
"Section D: The Vice President shall serve as provisional Head of State of the Union
Subsection 1: The Vice President shall be appointed by the President after the latter's election. After the 3 months Pres. Term's end, the Vice President remains in his/her position, until the new President decides to replace him or further his/her mandate.
Subsection 2: The Vice President shall take the powers and duties of the President in case the latter is inactive for more than seven days without notice.
Subsection 3: The Vice President shall take the powers and duties of the President if the President announces a determined or undetermined period of inactivity.
Subsection 4: If the Vice President takes the powers and duties of the President in the terms dictated by the Constitution, he will not be longer reffered to as the Vice President, but as the President ad Interim.
Subsection 5: If the Vice President takes the powers and duties of the President in the terms dictated by the Constitution, the same will have to appoint another Vice President, the Vice President ad Interim.
Subsection 6: If the Vice President takes the powers and duties of the President in the terms dictated by the Constitution, and the President does not become active before presidential elections, the elections will be held normally, with the Vice President being able to candidate himself for President.
Subsection 7: The Vice President can and shall participate and help the President in his/her duties and activities."

Article III: Conclusion
We, the Parliament of the Union, with the advice of the First Extraordinary Constitutional Convention, do hereby enact this document and its provisions as an Amendment to the Constitution of the Union, and order the Founder to update the Constitution exactly as mandated by the provisions of this document, and in a timely manner.